#REVIEW - The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

REVIEWS:

“Clever, intelligent…wonderful” (Jojo Moyes, New York Timesbestselling author of Me Before You).

DESCRIPTION:

Meet the Bird family. They live in a honey-colored house in a picture-perfect Cotswolds village, with rambling, unkempt gardens stretching beyond. Pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and tow-headed twins Rory and Rhys all attend the village school and eat home-cooked meals together every night. Their father is a sweet gangly man named Colin, who still looks like a teenager with floppy hair and owlish, round-framed glasses. Their mother is a beautiful hippy named Lorelei, who exists entirely in the moment. And she makes every moment sparkle in her children’s lives.

Then one Easter weekend, tragedy comes to call. The event is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass as the children become adults, find new relationships, and develop their own separate lives. Soon it seems as though they’ve never been a family at all. But then something happens that calls them back to the house they grew up in—and to what really happened that Easter weekend so many years ago.

Told in gorgeous, insightful prose that delves deeply into the hearts and minds of its characters, The House We Grew Up In is the captivating story of one family’s desire to restore long-forgotten peace and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.

New Release! Today, Tuesday, August 12th, 2012!

My Take:
5 Stars!
British author Lisa Jewell gives us a new definition for dysfunctional families with the topic of hoarding in this book. She really gets deep down into the nitty-gritty of how 'hoarding' affects not only the individual who does it, the individual we see on the TV shows and think to ourselves, 'HOW" can they live like that?', but have you ever given thought as to how it affects the family members living IN that mess, or after moving out, do you really want to go back into it? 
This author really hits the nail on the head with this book because even though we cannot understand hoarding, and we gross out by it, personally I have NEVER given ONE single thought about the other family members! This author has and is bringing a new light to be thought about in this mess. 
To be honest, have any of you 'really' thought about what hoarding does to the other members in the family? Probably not.
This family has six members.
Mum - Lorelei, who likes to go by Laurie
Dad - Colin
4 children - Beth, Meg, Rory and Rhys (the last two are twins)
And other friends of the family, too. Are all of these people enablers? To a degree, but they have tried to help Laurie.
Mum and Dad end up with their own sets of problems, and each child ends up with their own issues of psychological problems that really come out more when they are adults than it ever did when they were children. They felt some things were strange when they were young, for instance at Easter time when they found the foil-wrapped easter eggs, after they opened them they had to save the foil from each one, rub them out into the square they are, and give it back to Mum so she can repurpose it. It isn't until adulthood this issue really starts to hit them as odd. There are MANY issues like this that hit them later, and as I said, let alone go back into that mess that just got worse over time!
Yes, one Easter tragedy really hits the family, and hard.
I LOVE Lisa Jewell's writing, it always draws me in no matter what topic it's about, and I love it even more with this book as she tackles things head-on with things that really DO happen in life and shows how people do deal with this kind of behavior This book was so great, I found when I could not read, I was thinking about it and talking to my husband about it!! It has it's comic moments, too! I found myself laughing out loud several times, most especially when the kids talked about their memories about Mum and her little quirks she had that they lived with not knowing any better as kids! Now, as adults, some of the kids have different issues of their own, such as Meg who is so clean, she's gone the other way - drastically. 
This book really tackles how hoarding affects other people in that person's life. Overall I found this still, given the subject matter, a delightful read! I really enjoyed it! I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone, especially given the subject matter! I received this book for FREE from the Publisher, Atria Books, and NetGalley, in exchange to read and write a review about it. "Free" means I was provided with ZERO MONIES to do so, but to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading it and giving my own honest opinion no matter whether it is positive or negative. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the law set here: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html., The Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, 16 CFR 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising Federal Acquisition Regulation.

PS. This would make a GREAT Book Club pick! Great book for many good discussions!



ebook: $11.99